ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the sustainability of voluntary return as a preferred durable solution for Afghan refugee communities against the backdrop of national and regional political and security considerations. Increasingly, Afghan refugees have become a political football for the regional powers, the two major host countries, Pakistan and Iran, have made the return of Afghan refugee's part of their regional as well as international policies. The main cause of the Afghan refugee outflow in the 1980s was fear of physical insecurity. Some Afghan communities had strong traditions of mobility to access labour markets in nearby states. In the complex regional geopolitical situation, refugee populations serve as tools of neighbouring power interests. Pakistan, which after 1979 became the host for the largest single population of Afghan refugees, historically had an extremely tense relationship with Afghanistan. The United Nation's High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) entered the picture after Pakistan called for assistance in 1979.
